Working Hard? Nope, Hardly Working!

Like you, I am fascinated with the daily reporting from Trenton’s Federal Courthouse. After months of waiting, and several postponements, the proceedings in The United States of America vs. Tony & Ralphiel Mack are finally moving along.

The broad outlines of the case, with the testimony and evidence being introduced in Judge Michael Shipp’s courtroom generally conforming with what we had expected after reading the texts of the US Attorney’s criminal complaint and indictment.

I won’t duplicate the reporting from the local media, other than to thank the Times and Trentonian for their frequently-updated coverage and daily recaps. Thanks specifically to the reporters on the scene, namely Alex Zdan and Jenna Pizzi of the Times and Shaheed Morris and Paul Mickle for the Trentonian.

What I will comment on is a few details in this morning’s Times article by Pizzi and Zdan that further illuminate what a fucking disaster Tony Mack has been for the City of Trenton.

After describing how a government informant, Harry Seymour, delivered $25,000 in government-supplied bribe money to JoJo Giorgianni’s steak shop in North Trenton on June , the article goes on to say that “The day after Seymour dropped off the bribe money, Hall called Mack from inside the steak shop, waking the mayor from an afternoon nap in front of a college baseball game on TV.” That would have been Friday, June 22.

Also in the article is a narration of another event on Thursday, June 21, 2012. On that date, the FBI met with Charles Hall III and persuaded him to turn government informant as well. “As the first step in his new cooperation, a dejected-sounding Hall placed a call to Mack later in the day. He caught Mack at a baseball game, and tried to get Mack’s attention for a meeting.”

So for two days running in June 2012 we find Tony Mack, not in his office working on the City’s many intractable problems, but kicking back and taking it easy, dozing in front of his TV on a Thursday, taking in a ball game on a Friday.

To put these two dates in a bit of context, let’s look at a story published in the Trentonian on June 25, 2012. The article by Anthony Campisi, rather optimistically titled, “Mayor Mack’s power slipping away in Trenton,” bemoans the chaos inside the Administration: “Two years into Mack’s term, five out of 10 members of his cabinet are serving in an acting capacity and one position, that of finance director, is vacant.”

The article also describes how “The state sent Mack a list of three acceptable choices for city attorney Thursday [that would have been June 21 -KM] and has also recently supplied him lists of possible nominees for public works director and inspections director, according to DCA spokeswoman Tammori Petty.”

On the same day the State sent that list of candidates for City Attorney, Tony Mack was watching a college baseball game at home, enjoying an afternoon nap, and chatting on the phone with his alleged co-conspirator about bribe payments.

Nice.

To read of details like his going AWOL on a work day while his Administration was in shambles is infuriating.

Even if Tony Mack is found not guilty of these accusations; even if a possible conviction is overturned on appeal or a mistrial declared; even if he avoids any more criminal charges arising from his conduct in office; even if he walks away scot-free from any personal consequence by law for the last four years; the man has been nothing but a catastrophe for this town.

His disdain for the bare minimum of the job – just showing up! – shows again how much contempt the man has for this City and the poor souls who live here.

I can’t wait for the day of the verdict. I hope to God he is found guilty and is shit-canned out of City Hall before the sun sets.